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The Philosophy of Sant Jnanadeva |
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| The Age of Jnanadeva |
| | Political Condition | Literary Condition | Religious Condition | |
| | The Spiritual Lineage of Jnanadeva | The Bhakti Cult of Pandharpur | |
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| Political Condition: |
| Jnanadeva lived in the latter half of the thirteenth century A.D. Jnaneshwari was written in Shaka 1212 (1290 A.D.).
The fact that the completion of the work took place in 1290 A.D. is undisputed as it is mentioned at the end of the work itself. Similarly Jnanadeva mentions the name of 'Shri Ramachandra' i.e. King Ramadevarava of Yadava dynasty as 'a just ruler who supported all arts and sciences'. Devagiri - the present Daulatabad - was the capital of the Yadava Kings. King Bhillama who ruled from 1187-1191 A.D. was the first sovereign of this Yadava dynasty. He put an end to the Chalukya rule and founded Devagiri. His son Jaitrapal, it is said, had Mukundaraja - the author of Paramamrita and Vivekasindhu - as his spiritual teacher. Jaitrapal's son Singhan was a valorous king who conquered Malwa, Gujarat and Southern Maharashtra and annexed them to his kingdom. The town Shinganapur was founded by him and so is named after him. 'Sangit Ratnakar,' an authoritative Sanskrit work on Indian Music, was written by Sharangadhar during his reign. King Ramadevarava was the great-grandson of this Singhan. He ruled from 1271 to 1309 A.D. The famous Hemadri, the towering personality of the times, was his chief minister or Shrikaranadhipa. He was a great administrator as well as an able organizer. He compiled the encyclopaedic work named 'Chaturvarga Chintamani' which stands foremost among his other minor religious works. He is said to have built many temples in a peculiar style called Hemadapanti after his name and invented the Modi script in Marathi. Bopadeva, the famous grammarian, was a friend of Hemadri. The Yadava period was really a golden period in the history of Maharashtra and Devagiri formed a centre of learning, art and culture in the midst of Maharashtra attracting men of great attainments and scholarship from all parts of India. Astronomy, Astrology, Mathematics, Theology, Medicine and Statecraft received encouragement from the Yadavas. King Ramadevarava was a just ruler, a great patron of learning and a devotee of the God of Pandharpur whose shrine he visited with reverence. His name stands in the inscription of Pandharpur temple where a list of those persons who endowed sums of money for the purpose of building, is found. Ramadevarava, however, does not seem to be a brave king because in his reign Allauddin Khilji invaded his capital, defeated him and made him his subsidiary who had to pay a yearly tribute. But during Jnanadeva's life time Maharashtra was unmolested by foreign invasions and was enjoying all prosperity. |
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| Homepage --> The Age of Jnanadeva --> Literary Condition |
| Literary Condition: |
| If we look to the literary condition we see that it is Jnanadeva who has written the first original philosophical work in Marathi language. Mukundaraja, the author of Paramamrit and Viveksindhu, is called the first poet of Maharashtra. But his priority to Jnanadeva is doubtful. Writers like Ajagaonkar have tried to prove that he lived after Jnanadeva. Then again his works lack originality. Mukundaraja himself tells that he has followed Shamkara in his work. So his works are in the main expository of Shamkara's philosophy. There is also Mahanubhava literature, but it is poetic and religious more than philosophical. It has no original philosophical point of view. It contains only a gross pluralism. Jnanadeva was a great poet as well as a great philosopher and his work is the first of its kind in Marathi literature. |
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| Homepage --> The Age of Jnanadeva --> Religious Condition |
| Religious Condition: |
| Though Maharashtra was enjoying secular prosperity its religious condition was far from satisfactory. There was, as it were, a religious fermentation. Five centuries ago Shamkaracharya had attacked Vedic ritualism and advocated the doctrine of renunciation. Ramanuja had tried to reconcile both, but his influence was not felt so much in Maharashtra. The ritualism was fast disappearing and its place was being taken by the worship of various deities. The inferior deities were also offered animal sacrifices. Jnanadeva describes a person worshipping inferior deities as the very incarnation of ignorance. He observes: "Like the foolish farmer giving up his old business and beginning something new every day, the man overpowered by ignorance installs new images of gods often and again, and worships them with the same intensity. He becomes the disciple of a Guru (a spiritual teacher) who is surrounded by worldly pomp, gets himself initiated by him and is unwilling to see any other person who has got real spiritual dignity. He is cruel to every being, worships various stone images and has no consistency of heart. Leaving the image of god in his house, he wanders among the so-called holy places performing the rites of several deities on various occasions. On the eleventh day of the month he worships Krishna and on the fourth he worships Ganesha. On the fifth he performs the rites of serpents and on the fourteenth those of goddess Durga. In the first half of the month of Ashwin he worships goddess Chandi. On Sunday he visits Bhairava, and on Monday he runs with Bela leaves in his hand to Mahadeva. He does not keep quiet even for a moment and is like a prostitute whose residence is open to all, his mind is open to all kinds of worship and hence he is the very incarnation of ignorance." Besides these deity-worships there were too many religious performances current amongst the different strata of society. Hemadri has described various such religious performances numbering about two thousand. He prescribes five to ten performances for each day and gives details about the deities to be propitiated. He gives a list of various dishes to be prepared and offered to the priests for gaining their favour. He also gives various authoritative quotations from Shrutis, Smritis and Puranas. Besides this degenerated form of Vedic Religion, there were various sects like Jain, Lingayata and Mahanubhava trying to get supremacy. Jnanadeva has criticised different views of Ahimsa. Besides criticising Mimamsakas and Ayurvedics he has also criticised Jainas. "Some people" he says, "drink water filtered through a piece of cloth as their religious duty. But many germs are destroyed in the very process of filtering. Some again eat uncooked food because they are afraid of injuring the germs. But in the very act of eating uncooked food, they do injury to themselves. A non-injury is not a non-injury at all. It is like cutting the boughs of a tree for making a fence around it or like cutting one's hands to satisfy one's hunger. It is like putting down a temple in order to build a wall around it or like burning one's quilts to get warmth." Lingayata religion was promulgated by Basava in the 12th century A.D. and it was attacking Jainism. The Mahanubhava sect worshipped Krishna and Dattatraya. But it closely guarded its doctrines. Its works were written in a cryptic language not easy to decipher. Asceticism was its ideal and like Buddhism it advocated renunciation not for men alone but for women also. Because of its secrecy and extreme ascetic tendency the Mahanubhava cult did not find favour with the saints of Maharashtra and we find its criticism in the works of Ekanatha and Tukarama. |
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| Homepage --> The Age of Jnanadeva --> The Spiritual Lineage of Jnanadeva |
| The Spiritual Lineage of Jnanadeva: |
| The spiritual lineage of Jnanadeva can be traced, to the two sources; the Nath cult and the Warakari or Bhakti cult of Pandharpur. The Nath lineage is described at the close of Jnaneshwari as follows, "Shiva-Shakti-Matsyendra-Gorakha-Gahini-Nivritti and Jnanadeva." Tryambakpant, the great grandfather of Jnanadeva, was initiated by Gorakhanath. Gorakhanath's disciple Gahininath initiated both Govindpant and Nirai, the grandfather and grandmother of Jnanadeva. He also initiated Jnanadeva's brother Nivrittinath who in his turn was the initiator of Jnanadeva. Before Jnanadeva this spiritual wealth was a great secret known only to the teacher and his disciple. Jnanadeva wanted to disseminate it among all. So we find his request to his master to this effect in the closing words of Jnaneshwari. The history of these Nathas before Gorakhanath is not yet explored. These Nathas were a wandering sect of persons gifted with great yogic powers. Their regular place of residence is not known. Both Bengal and Maharashtra claim their residence. The hill named Matsyendragad and a tamarind tree called Gorakh-chincha are in the district of Satara. These are shown as sacred to Matsyendranath and Gorakhanath respectively. Nivrittinath was initiated by Gahininath at Brahmagiri near Nasik. He describes his master thus - "His heart was parched by renunciation but was cooled by Divine Love. He was wandering without being affected by pleasure or pain, without being attached to any worldly object and the Divine Bliss made his heart its constant abode. By his grace my family has become sanctified." Nivrittinath and his sister Muktabai had also the fortune of meeting Gorakhanath. Historical evidence about the existence of Matsyendranath is not available. But Gorakhanath has written some works that are published and hence we see that he was a great organizer of the Nath cult which has played an important role in the creation and consolidation of Neo-Hinduism after the decline of Buddhism. Siddhsiddhant-Paddhati is his important and authoritative work that deals with philosophical problems such as the nature of Ultimate Reality, its relation with individual souls and the world. This work is written in Sanskrit, partly in the form of aphorisms and partly in the form of verses, and it must have greatly influenced the philosophy of Jnanadeva. |
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| Homepage --> The Age of Jnanadeva --> The Bhakti Cult of Pandharpur |
| The Bhakti Cult of Pandharpur: |
| The history of the Bhakti cult of Pandharpur is also uncertain. According to tradition, Pundalika was the first great high priest of the God of Pandharpur. The Pandu-rangashtaka of Shamkaracharya mentions the name of Pundalika for whom God appeared on the bank of Bhima. If these verses are composed by the first Shamkaracharya, we can say that Pundalika must have lived before the eighth century A.D. But the authenticity of the verses is doubtful. Malu Sonar has written a work in Marathi called Malu-Taran in which he has given a history of Pandharpur, and, if his account is reliable, the date of Pundalika goes as far back as the first century A.D. But unfortunately, the writer of this work is not reliable. However, the inscription on this Samadhi of Krishnaswami together with the idols of Vithal and Rukmini found in Alandi dated 1209 A.D. and the inscription at Pandharpur dated 1237 and 1273 A.D. show that Pundalika and his God were enjoying a wide reputation nearly four or five centuries before Jnanadeva. Jnanadeva's father and grandfather were regular visitors to Pandharpur. This fact and his coming in contact with the great devotee Namadeva were of prime importance in shaping his philosophy which became the foundation of the Bhakti cult in Maharashtra. |
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